Marco Polo (space probe)

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Marco Polo was a part of the ESA -Programms Cosmic Vision proposed space mission that a sample from a near-Earth object was to bring to Earth. Near-earth objects are asteroids or comets that come close to the earth. They are leftovers from the time the solar system was formed . Studying their properties in detail will allow us to better understand the formation and evolution of the solar system.

Since this project is a collaboration with the Japanese space agency Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), it was named after Marco Polo , who was one of the first Europeans to establish good relations with Asia.

history

The project was examined by ESA in an internal study from March to April 2008. On the basis of this study, Marco Polo was selected for further development with five other projects from 50 submitted applications.

Between June 2008 and summer 2009 three parallel industrial studies were carried out. In autumn 2009 the number of projects being pursued was further reduced to three ( Euclid , PLATO and Solar Orbiter ). Marco Polo was not selected.

In 2010, a lower-cost variant was to be submitted under the name MarcoPolo-R . A decision by ESA was made in February 2011 and the mission will continue to be studied.

Scientific goals

The main objective of the mission was to bring a sample from a primitive near-earth object to Earth .

Essentially with ground-based analyzes of these samples, but also with on-site investigations of the asteroid or comet, the following detailed scientific questions could have been answered:

  1. What were the starting conditions and the history of the development of the solar nebula ?
  2. What were the properties of the building blocks of the terrestrial planets?
  3. How have important events (e.g. agglomeration, warming) influenced the history of the planetesimals (i.e. the building blocks of planets)?
  4. Does primitive objects contain pre-solar material that has not yet been found in meteorites ?
  5. What are the organic components of primitive materials?
  6. How can organic materials in primitive objects shed light on the question of how life-giving molecules came into being in the universe?
  7. What role do impacts from near-earth objects play in the origin and development of the earth?

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b European Space Agency, Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 Technology Development Plan , 2010
  2. ↑ MarcoPolo-R Mission . L'Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, 2010. Retrieved December 1, 2010.
  3. ↑ sci.esa.int: ESA Science & Technology: Call for a Medium-size mission opportunity for a launch in 2022 , July 29, 2010, accessed on February 12, 2011